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Topic: Singing Bowls (Read 6802 times)

After been listening to artists such as Klaus Wiese and Oophoi for some time..I have been getting interested to maybe get an singing Bowl..But I want to know little more of it, what different kinds Singing Bowls does exist ?And what does these cost ?

I think you could probably find a Tibetan or Nepalese singing bowl for under $100 on the web, but the nicer ones will probably run you several hundred dollars. A Tibetan folk musician I knew joked that the singing bowls were used for storing beer.

Undershadow

Check out http://www.himalayanbowls.com/index.htm, for example. You’ll see there’s a pretty large range of bowls of different sizes, materials, and antiquities. I came across fine antique singing bowls, rare & unique singing bowls, special deep singing bowls, antique harmonic sets, hand made gold color, hand made bronze color, hand made bronze engraved, hand made copper engraved, machine made cup bowls, machine made decorative copper...

Take one page, e.g. http://www.himalayanbowls.com/products.htm?categoryId=5, and you’ll see there are a variety of different sizes, and a corresponding range of prices. Compare with other pages where there are differently aged and priced specimens. I’d be spoilt for choice if I had to decide which to buy. I noticed there’s 20% off some of the stuff on this site.

In the UK singing bowls are often available in stalls selling nepalese or himalayan clothes at music festivals or spiritual fayres. The second of these are well worth attending as the stalls I have seen are often run by nepalese or himalayan people who want to develop interest in their culture and so tend to import good versions of what they are selling.

A slightly different tibetan sound maker is the dorje (vajra - thunderbolt) and bell. They usually come in a set, representing among other things male and female energies - the bell can be sung in the same way as a singing bowl by rubbing one of the beaters around the edge.

Check out http://www.himalayanbowls.com/index.htm, for example. You’ll see there’s a pretty large range of bowls of different sizes, materials, and antiquities. I came across fine antique singing bowls, rare & unique singing bowls, special deep singing bowls, antique harmonic sets, hand made gold color, hand made bronze color, hand made bronze engraved, hand made copper engraved, machine made cup bowls, machine made decorative copper...

Take one page, e.g. http://www.himalayanbowls.com/products.htm?categoryId=5, and you’ll see there are a variety of different sizes, and a corresponding range of prices. Compare with other pages where there are differently aged and priced specimens. I’d be spoilt for choice if I had to decide which to buy. I noticed there’s 20% off some of the stuff on this site.

Thank you for info, seems like a good site, mp3 samples for all singing bowls also which is very good..I will go through all mp3 samples and see what I think.

In the UK singing bowls are often available in stalls selling nepalese or himalayan clothes at music festivals or spiritual fayres. The second of these are well worth attending as the stalls I have seen are often run by nepalese or himalayan people who want to develop interest in their culture and so tend to import good versions of what they are selling.

A slightly different tibetan sound maker is the dorje (vajra - thunderbolt) and bell. They usually come in a set, representing among other things male and female energies - the bell can be sung in the same way as a singing bowl by rubbing one of the beaters around the edge.

Thanks, sounds interesting, I do not live in UK though, but I got a friend who might be able to help me..but I think I might be able to find a good quality singing bowl online...

In the UK singing bowls are often available in stalls selling nepalese or himalayan clothes at music festivals or spiritual fayres. The second of these are well worth attending as the stalls I have seen are often run by nepalese or himalayan people who want to develop interest in their culture and so tend to import good versions of what they are selling.

A slightly different tibetan sound maker is the dorje (vajra - thunderbolt) and bell. They usually come in a set, representing among other things male and female energies - the bell can be sung in the same way as a singing bowl by rubbing one of the beaters around the edge.

Thanks, sounds interesting, I do not live in UK though, but I got a friend who might be able to help me..but I think I might be able to find a good quality singing bowl online...

It's amazing how different even similar looking ones can sound. That's why I get mine from stalls, so I can listen to them and see which I like. Let us know how it sounds when you get it.

I did music for a workshop last year and the person leading it asked me to do something a bit edgy and dischordant. I looked at my collection of harmonious sounding bowls and thought how the hell am I going to do that?....shortly hit upon the idea of using one of the temple bells (two small cymbals on a string) and twirled one end around inside the bowls as fast as I could - was definitely edgy and dischordant - and apologised to the bowls all the time I was doing it. Surprisingly none seem to be any th worse for wear.

If you are going to buy bowls from abroad, please be sure to research the vendor carefully. Many of the items flooding the market coming out of China result from the constant trashing and raiding of monasteries and simply selling all the goods for profit.

If you can verify that you'll be buying directly from an actual craftsman, go for it. Don't support the continuing genocide against Tibet. Nepalese and Indian bowls are equally as good as Tibetan. And you will definitely want several in different sizes to allow for different tones and resonance.

I have a fantastic recording of bowls being played; only three in total and the drones go on for just over an hour. The one bowl's resonance creates a waveform that takes around 3 minutes to complete its cycle...it's so beautiful and hypnotic.

....shortly hit upon the idea of using one of the temple bells (two small cymbals on a string) and twirled one end around inside the bowls as fast as I could - was definitely edgy and dischordant - and apologised to the bowls all the time I was doing it. Surprisingly none seem to be any th worse for wear.

Ok now I have to try this when I get to the studio later today...

Paul

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....shortly hit upon the idea of using one of the temple bells (two small cymbals on a string) and twirled one end around inside the bowls as fast as I could - was definitely edgy and dischordant - and apologised to the bowls all the time I was doing it. Surprisingly none seem to be any th worse for wear.

Ok now I have to try this when I get to the studio later today...

Paul

let us know what you think...I got a variety of sounds by changing length of string - short meant intermittent bursts of clanging, just right length to spin all the way round the rim was a continuous sound.

not a technique I think for the crystal bowls - anyone tried one of these. I saw one almost big enough to have a bath in that made a really deep sound....